Most Dramatic Moments of the Week

Another week, another incredible seven days of drama and excitement across the sports world.

There is not much variety on this list for the week, though, as college basketball dominated the landscape with the typical early March Madness intensity. Conference championships and the opening day of the Big Dance were the highlights here, and they are represented as such.

Here are the most dramatic moments from the past week in sports.

Albany Punches Ticket on Last-Second Winner

It's likely that not too many people were tuning in to watch the America East Conference Championship Game between Albany and Stony Brook on March 14, but those who did were in for a treat.

The two teams battled back and forth all game before Albany came down the court with just seconds remaining and down by two points.

Peter Hooley, a guard who missed eight games during the season to return home to Australia to be with his cancer-stricken mother, pulled up and sunk the game-winning shot just before time expired to send his team to the big dance.

Oregon Wins on a Prayer

Joe Young is not a household name, but the Pac-12 Player of the Year was firing on all cylinders in the Pac-12 semifinal game last Friday.

Young scored 25 points to lead his Oregon team to victory, but the big highlight was when he pulled up from way behind the three-point line to drain a game-winning three pointer with a second left on the clock and the game tied at 64-64.

No. 17 Utah, who struggled to maintain a lead for much of the game in front of a largely pro-Utah crowd, was sent home stunned after Young's insane shot.

Words really can't do the shot justice; make sure you watch the highlight above.

No. 14 Seed Upsets

Within hours on Thursday, we already had some insane upsets that busted pretty much everyone's bracket courtesy of two unheralded 14 seeds.

First, UAB went and upended Iowa State in a crazy ending that saw Naz Long miss a potential game-tying three-pointer that was tipped in by a teammate with 0.4 seconds to go as a two-point basket that caused Iowa State to lose 60-59.

Not to be outdone, Georgia State hung around against Baylor until the final minutes before going on a crazy 13-0 run that finished with an impossibly deep three-pointer by R.J. Hunter to give Georgia State a miraculous 57-56 victory.

Borland Retires

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After a number of surprising NFL retirements clouded over the opening of free agency last week, it seemed like the news was in the past.

But then Chris Borland delivered perhaps the biggest shocker of the entire offseason so far when he revealed on Monday that he would be hanging up his cleats for good.

At only 24 years old, Borland is the youngest starting-caliber player to retire this offseason. He filled in admirably for Patrick Willis at linebacker during his rookie campaign in 2014 and was penciled in as the long-term replacement in San Francisco.

Borland was a third-round pick in last year's draft after a decorated career at Wisconsin and seemed to have a bright future ahead of him in the sport.

But he was concerned about the effects of playing football and made a brave decision to step away and pursue other interests. It's a move that would have been unheard of even a decade ago but is likely to become more prominent in the future.

Ole Miss Rallies to Advance

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Ole Miss and BYU offered up the first big drama of the NCAA tournament in their first-round matchup on Tuesday night.

The 11-seeds were battling for the chance to take on Xavier and played with all the intensity of a win-or-go-home game.

Ole Miss found itself down by as many as 17 points but sparked a crazy 15-2 run halfway through the second half to help get back into it.

BYU simply couldn't overcome Ole Miss' frenzied play and dynamite jump shooting, and the Rebels clamped down in the final minutes to preserve the 94-90 win.

Knicks Shock Spurs in OT

The New York Knicks have been a mockery this season, and at 14-53 they look more like a team that should be competing in March Madness than the NBA on most nights.

But somehow, someway, they found themselves neck-and-neck with the mighty San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night and rode rookie Langston Galloway's 22 points into overtime against Tim Duncan and his squad.

The Spurs seemed to be on their heels in the extra frame, making poor decisions and not executing like we've come to expect over the years.

New York took advantage of the sloppy play and pulled out ahead of San Antonio, hitting a couple of clutch shots to put away the Spurs 104-100.

Dayton Advances on No-Call

Skip Peterson/Associated Press

Wednesday night's Dayton-Boise State game was already mired in controversy due to the supposedly neutral site for the game being right in Dayton's home court, yet the ending swirled up even further contention.

Dayton went into the second half down by nine points but fought back valiantly and managed to hold a small lead heading into the final seconds of the game thanks to a 15-5 run.

But Boise State got a great look just before the buzzer sounded, with Derrick Marks pulling up from three and drawing some significant contact from Dayton's Kyle Davis.

Yet the refs decided no foul was committed on the play, and Dayton escaped with the first controversial victory of March Madness. 

SMU-UCLA Crazy Ending

After the craziness of Georgia State and UAB, it seemed like nothing could surprise everyone more on Thursday.

But SMU and UCLA took care of that with a ridiculous ending of their own. The two teams went back and forth and were just points apart for the final minutes of the second half.

Then UCLA's Bryce Alford chucked up a three-pointer with 10 seconds left and his team down two points. The shot was almost assuredly going to fall well short of the basket, but SMU's Yanick Moreira reached up and swatted the ball down, resulting in a goaltending call that put UCLA ahead by one point.

SMU was unable to hit a shot of its own on the final possession and suffered as heartbreaking a loss as you can get.